Big Head Press Forum
Online Comics => Quantum Vibe => Topic started by: Quinlan73 on December 05, 2017, 03:44:46 pm
-
I'm getting a strong film noir feeling from the first strip. Dian's working for a private investigator only increases this feeling.
-
Oh, good. That's the effect I'm going for. Hard-boiled detective story in spaaaaaaaaaaaaace.
-
A detective in space without a suit will be hard and boiled.
-
We need some good noir around here. Most of QV has been too cheerful.
-
This is more or less what I would expect of someone like her achieving in her time in this new city. She's doing what she knows best while learning the ropes of her adopted home. At some point in the future I would expect her to research options for collecting more pay, or some equivalent once she starts wrapping her head around her new society.
-
I could have sworn that that last panel had her contemplating searching the classifieds for a better, more reliably paying job on her day off, rather than reading up on case law.
-
Sean, your alternate reality is showing. In the last panel Dian was experiencing Eithne-ui and complaining about being poor, while driving her suitcase/flying car. Truly one of my favorite panels of the year.
-
Sean, your alternate reality is showing. In the last panel Dian was experiencing Eithne-ui and complaining about being poor, while driving her suitcase/flying car. Truly one of my favorite panels of the year.
Owning a flying car that fits in a suitcase is really awesome until you realize it's the local equivalent of a Pinto.
-
I could have sworn that that last panel had her contemplating searching the classifieds for a better, more reliably paying job on her day off, rather than reading up on case law.
One should not underestimate the effect of feeling a debt owed, no matter if it's unofficial. Juan literally saved her life, which is one reason she will (probably) have greater tolerance to bad pay and lesser prospects than usual.
ObNote: Homo Economicus is as much a chimera as Homo Sovieticus. Which is why I have reservations about the sustainability of a "pure" big-L Libertarianism.
-
Interesting complaints about groceries. One would expect a market niche for cheap and nutritionally perfect "paste" comparable to today's "Soylent" in Bubbleopolis, the staple of students and other "less wealthy" segments of populace and/or those who don't have time or interest to do proper cooking. Undrugged, of course, but nevertheless fast to prepare, can be ordered in largish consignment, shelf-life measured in decades, very healthy and so on. Or a handy machine for preparing such synth-foods from raw-materials cartridge, possibly with additional packets of flavors, possibly specifically tailored to individual biochemistry in question.
Diet of such does not, of course, preclude eating "real" food when occasion calls for.
-
Given what she's learned about the paste she grew up eating, she is probably wary of anything like it.
-
"Nutritionally perfect" and "shelf life of decades" are incompatible - and the combination evokes '50s scientism. Fully nutritional food must be live, and while the culturing and harvesting could no doubt be fully automated, and the required ecosystem optimized with all the bioengineering in the vibeverse - no long dead paste is going to be "nutritionally perfect". Especially since an important part of nutrition is live bacteria - which outnumber number human cells in a healthy organism.
Many nutrients are extremely unstable. E.g. lactose decays into glucose and de-galactose after only a few days in the grocery fridge - doubling your risk of heart disease when consumed. Homogenization to keep the butterfat suspended also accelerates the fat oxidation. And even fairly stable saturated fats do not last decades when separated from the seed matrix. Whole (live) nuts and seeds represent highly optimized shelf-life, but are far from "nutritionally perfect" on their own.
-
Nearly all the food consumed in Bubbleopolis looks a lot like the food we consume now. In part, for the reasons "customdesigned" outlines, in part for taste, in part for cultural preferences. The difference is most of the locally-produced food is either vegetables grown hydroponically, or meats grown in vats rather than as animals.
However a lot of food is also imported, which is not a big deal with the Discontinuous Displacement Engine. You can render a cow on some planet-side abattoir a thousand or a million light-years away and send the cuts to Bubbleopolis in less than a minute.
-
Primias? ...the workweek starts on Sunday?
-
Primias? ...the workweek starts on Sunday?
I imagine with few laws, work weeks would be highly staggered at more or less random to take advantage of other people's weekends.
-
Not unsurprisingly Diana still holds prejudices against artificial lifeforms. While I'm not concerned, (it hasn't been long since AIs ruled her entire life) I'm hoping this adventure gives her her own "Murphy" that will become a good friend to her despite her best efforts to avoid it.
-
My old Subaru failed out...My suspention kept breaking away due to total rust...even I could not even tied off my seat to drive...It broke my heart to drive it to the junk yard.
Still, if my dog or my wife die off too, it is not the same...A machine still stay a machine, call it a gynoid, a bot or a damn TIN MAN!
(https://i.imgur.com/sYHRTH1.jpg)
-
Awesome, new adventure with Diane, and she's getting up to exploring this strange future society. Also a plus she's facing it from a lower class lifestyle perspective instead of being an ultra rich member of Seamus' descendants. As for her not rising higher in society... though she's a sharp cookie she can't build society changing inventions. Her talents seem to be more tilted toward detective work anyway.
-
Not unsurprisingly Diana still holds prejudices against artificial lifeforms. While I'm not concerned, (it hasn't been long since AIs ruled her entire life) I'm hoping this adventure gives her her own "Murphy" that will become a good friend to her despite her best efforts to avoid it.
I see it as a Pavlovian thing. You can't expect most humans to switch gears instantly on something so fundamental to their life experience.
-
I'm not convinced Hayami is actually dead. A co-conspirator could have brought a back up device for her and then destroyed her current brain and the back up they knew about. It would have been quieter if Hayami was willing, which would have made her "assassination" easier to get away with.
-
Thought it a little funny that Diana thinks Alyss needs to learn some humility. Diana doesn't know the life Alyss has lived. She probably assumes she was born rich, etc.
-
To be "fair", Alyss has been rich for a very long time.
IE She's had plenty of time to get a swelled head. ;)
Thought it a little funny that Diana thinks Alyss needs to learn some humility. Diana doesn't know the life Alyss has lived. She probably assumes she was born rich, etc.
-
Primias? ...the workweek starts on Sunday?
In Oz, the "week" lasts five days: Primias (or Primiday), Secundia (Secunday), Tritias (Tritiday), Quadias (Quadday), and Quintias (or Quinday). Quintias is the day most people take off work, but many have staggered schedules. But "Primias" is equivalent to "Monday" for us. BTW a "day" in Oz is 10,000 seconds (divided into 20 "hours") compared with 86,400 for a Terran day. The only time unit exactly the same for Oz as it is for us is the "second," which is an ISO measure.
Five of these weeks in a "cycle" (something close to a month), twelve cycles in a "year" (which is 18 Terran days shorter than a Terran year).
I have all this worked out on a spreadsheet I might publish for my Patreon supporters.
-
I'm guessing Alyss is offering twenty something. Any guesses and to how many zeros follow? :)
-
Seems likely to be more than their whole operation makes in a year or maybe even five years if alyss is feeling particularly like showing off. And they are stammering at the possibility of doubling the figure. Diane is right alyss can be pretty high handed. Though in this case i think it is justified since this job will endanger their lives
-
Alyss is a bit high handed, but the people she locks horns with are even more high handed, so I really don't see a problem.
-
Thats a bit of the corrupting influence of power right there. Also i just realized that hugo/seamus couldnt have killed hayame because he was too busy killing star trek aliens while alyss was doing this i was sure he had done the deed previously.
-
Thats a bit of the corrupting influence of power right there. Also i just realized that hugo/seamus couldnt have killed hayame because he was too busy killing star trek aliens while alyss was doing this i was sure he had done the deed previously.
No, Seamus/Hugo had nothing to do with Hayami's murder. Most likely you won't even see him in this story.
--Scott
-
In Oz, the "week" lasts five days: Primias (or Primiday), Secundia (Secunday), Tritias (Tritiday), Quadias (Quadday), and Quintias (or Quinday). Quintias is the day most people take off work, but many have staggered schedules. But "Primias" is equivalent to "Monday" for us. BTW a "day" in Oz is 10,000 seconds (divided into 20 "hours") compared with 86,400 for a Terran day. The only time unit exactly the same for Oz as it is for us is the "second," which is an ISO measure.
Ah. I was thrown by all the Portuguese, since modern Portuguese (at least in my corner of the US) typically uses cardinal numbers for the days, and "primeira feira" is Sunday. (And, er, are you sure you don't mean 100,000?)
Speaking of which - this scene is the entire reason you made Oz speak portuglês, isn't it?
-
I think the lingua franca of Oz is Esperanto, not Portuguese.
-
I think the lingua franca of Oz is Esperanto, not Portuguese.
It's defined as "Portanglish" http://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=1274
A pidgin and portmanteau of Portuguese and English.
-
(And, er, are you sure you don't mean 100,000?)
Oops, you're right, I meant 100,000 seconds in a "day".
Portanglish is predominantly Portuguese with a lot of Spanish and some English thrown in. The grammar and idioms can seem "off" to a contemporary Portuguese speaker, which is to be expected of any language over a 1000-year span.